Wes Craven to Direct "25/8"

Rogue Pictures has made deals that put the Focus Features genre arm in business with two horror icons.

First, Rogue made a deal to remake the 1972 George Romero film "The Crazies," about a small Pennsylvania burg terrorized after a plane crash drops a biological weapon into the water.

The studio bought the pic out of turnaround from Paramount, and it's earmarked to start production as soon as the SAG deal is made. Breck Eisner will direct a Ray Wright script, and Romero will executive produce.

Separately, Rogue has greenlit "25/8," a thriller that will be directed by Wes Craven and marks the first original horror script he has written since 1994 pic "Wes Craven's New Nightmare." Production is set to begin in April.

Craven said the film unveils a signature villain, a serial killer who turns up 15 years after his purported death, to kill the seven children born on that fateful night. "It's more a thriller than slasher film, and revolves around a young kid with a very dark past involving his family and his father," Craven told Variety.